A Whole New World
by Darla's-Fallen-Angel
Summary: An AU; After the events of Chosen, Dawn moves in with the Angel Investigations team and they all have to learn how to deal with the influx of potentials, including the new slayer, a 7-year-old girl named Chiara. Please read and review! Chapter 1 is up
1. Prologue

A/N: okay guys, this will be an entire series, but this is just a teaser/prologue because I need to update some other things too. It's set in the first season of Angel and in the seventh season of Buffy, right in the middle of the episode, 'Chosen', it'll veer off and be different from there. A Whole New World 

**Prologue**

The sun rose on the Angel Investigations team that day, just like everyday. Inside the Hyperion, Cordelia was sitting in Angel's office chair and filing her nails and glancing up periodically at the small television she'd perched on the edge of the desk to watch when things were slow at work. 

Wesley was sitting in an identical chair at his desk, a few feet away from hers trying to tune out the sound of Cordy's television while he read the paper and sipped his coffee; he grimaced, poured more cream to it and sipping it again. 

They sat in companionable silence a few moments longer before it was shattered with two things simultaneously; the ringing of their office phone and the talk show Cordelia was watching being interrupted by a breaking news report. 

Wesley picked up the phone with a motion for Cordy to mute the TV, but once she saw what the flickering across the screen, she ignored Wes and turned up the volume catching the tail end of the report as the newswoman trailed off with the line "Disaster in Sunnydale…" The report cut over to a picture of the town, what was once a bustling city now just a smoldering ashen colored crater in the earth. 

Instead of answering the phone, Wes's had paused in midair, as he watched the TV, his eyes widening at the destruction that was Sunnydale. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, what could cause such a…massive explosion. "Is that…?" he asked, voice catching in his throat. 

Cordelia nodded, tears coming to her eyes, realizing everything she'd ever known, the place she grew up in was gone. "Sunnydale." She replied, her heart constricting painfully as she realized Angel was still there…but how could anyone survive that?

"Hello?" came an impatient voice through the other end of the phone that jerked Wesley out of his reverie as he put the receiver to his ear, asking a quiet, "Yes?"

"Wes, it's me," Angel replied, the reception of the phone starting to crackle. He leaned against the phone booth he was in and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a dusty hand, giving what he hoped passed for a reassuring smile at Dawn who had his leather jacket wrapped around her frail shoulders and looked back at him with solemn eyes. 

"Angel" Wesley's relived voice flowed through the phone line, "Thank God you're okay. Where are you?"

Angel's eyes flickered to highway on his left and the run down Motel 8 on his right, wondering exactly which town this was, but he was too fatigued and overcome from the events of the past few hours to even really care. "It's doesn't matter," he told Wesley, "I'm coming home."

As the champion started on his way home to Los Angeles with the slayer's little sister clinging to his side, miles away a different little girl had already made her way to LA, though she was still a fair amount away from her destination. 

The seven year old girl paused on the sidewalk and looked at the scrap of paper in her hands written in cursive and squinted her eyes trying to read it, as if that'd make the looping letters any more legible. She shook her head and wondered why adults had to write that way, all loopy and curly instead of making letters with strait lines like she was being taught this year in first grade. 

Well, she was before everything had changed. The girl bit down on her lower lip and willed herself not to start crying. It wouldn't solve anything; hadn't her mother told her that a dozen times? She wiped her eyes as she tried to recall her mother's exact words, "Chiara, stop crying, child. It won't solve a thing and how's that any way for a potential slayer to act?"

Little Chiara shook her head and kept walking as she remembered what her watcher had told, and why she was being sent here; she wasn't just a potential slayer now, but the only one, which meant now more than ever she had to act like a big girl and do what she was told. Chiara came to a stop in front of a tall old-looking building trying to read the sign on the front, sounding it out aloud, "Hy…p-p-er…hyper…ion…Hyperion." She grinned, her earlier sadness melting away, proud that she'd found her destination and read the sign aloud again, "the Hyperion."

TBC…tell me if you like it so far.


	2. Chapter One

A Whole New World

Chapter One

Chiara stood outside the Hyperion for a few more minutes before walking up to it and pushing the heavy door open, slipping inside. She walked into the middle of the room and immediately noticed two things; first of all, she was alone, and second, she had no idea what she was supposed to do once she got there. 

Cordelia gave Wes a wan smile, relief that Angel was okay shone in her eyes. She was about to say something else to him when she noticed he'd stopped talking, his gaze fixed on a spot past her. Cordy followed his line of sight into the main room of the Hyperion and saw a small girl standing alone in the middle of the room, looking around curiously. 

Cordy looked back as Wesley with a shrug before she stood up and walked over to the little girl, "Hi." She said, purposely pushing Sunnydale out of her mind and forcing herself to dawn a brilliant smile as she kneeled down to the little girl's level, "Are you lost?"

Chiara looked at the woman with a serious expression on her face and gave a slight shrug before remembering the scrap of paper in her hand and held it out to Cordelia, "here," she said in a small voice, suddenly shy.

Cordelia took the piece of paper from the girl, her eyes scanning over the words that simply gave the address to the Hyperion and had the name Wesley Wyndham-Price on it. Cordy stood up, "Wes, you might want to come out here." She called to him before turning back to the girl, "Who gave you this?" she asked. 

"My watcher," Chiara told her, "He said…" Chiara squinted her eyes in concentration, trying to remember what her watcher, Mr. Alexander, had told her. "He said that I should come here…I'd be safe." She looked up at Cordelia with big brown eyes, "What am I bein' safe from?"

Cordelia shrugged silently as Wes walked into the room and looked down at the small girl, "Your watcher?" he intoned, over hearing the girl's previous words. She nodded. "You're a slayer in training then?" he asked, wondering why the council would trust him even with this little girl. After all, the Council never did seem to have a 'forgive and forget' attitude.

Chiara shook her head, "I _am_ the slyer," she replied, crossing her small arms over her chest with a annoyed pout that they didn't seem to believe her. "Oh!" she gave a little jump of excitement as she remembered what else Mr. Alexander had told her, "If you have questions you're 'opposed to call Mr. Giles."

Wesley raised an eyebrow; Giles had sent the girl to him? Why wouldn't he call first? Then a more important thought struck him, if this little girl was right, and she was the Slayer, then Buffy…? He looked at Cordelia who had an identical look of confusion and dread in her eyes. If this girl was the slayer, that meant Buffy was dead.

Chiara watched the two grown ups look at each other before the man, muttered something about calling the Giles man and walked off. Chiara turned to the woman, "Why do you have sad eyes?" she asked, "Aren't I a good slayer?" Chiara held up her arms to the woman, starting to give her a hug, hoping that'd get rid of her sad eyes, it always worked with her mommy. 

Cordelia picked the little girl up, balancing her on her hip. "I have sad eyes," she explained slowly, "because my friend was a slayer too, and she went to fight a big monster." Cordy paused realizing she shouldn't be telling a child about Buffy, she didn't want to scare her.

"Did your friend not come back?" Chiara asked with an understanding in her eyes far beyond her years. When Cordelia nodded, Chiara continued, "I know," she replied, "my mommy and daddy were watchers, they went to a big meeting in England and never came back either." Chiara huffed slightly as her lower lip trembled, "Mr. Alexander said they're in Heaven now. Do you think your friend's in Heaven too?"

Tears pooled in Cordy eyes as she looked down at this enchanting little girl, "Yes, I think she is." Cordelia replied softly before shifting the little girls weight to her other hip, freeing up a hand for her to wipe her eyes before she asked, "What's your name?" determined to change the subject.

Chiara smiled shyly, "Chiara Tamara-Maria Sierra" she replied, reciting her long name with a smile, "My name rhymes" she said proudly, "What's your name?"

Cordy smiled slightly at the little girl's rapid change in mood, "Cordelia Chase." She replied, setting the little girl down as her arms started to get tired. "Did you come her all by yourself?"

Chiara nodded vigorously, "Yep. I rideded on as plane all by myself 'cuz I'm a big girl…it's weird though…I've never been to California before. I live in New Mexico." She told Cordelia matter-of-factly. 

"You _rode_ on a plane," Wesley replied automatically as he walked back into the room, "Not rideded."

"Rideded." Chiara replied firmly, deciding she didn't like the man with the British accent who corrected her words. 

Wesley ignored the child; "Giles says she's in my charge now." He told Cordelia over Chiara's head, "Her parents were, uh," he paused not wanting to say killed in front of the child, "Her parents passed away less than a year ago at the massacre at the Watchers Council. She's been in her watcher's care since, but he couldn't keep up with the child and Giles recommended he send her to us."

Cordelia grinned in spite of herself at the thought of Wesley in charge of a child. Maybe it'd make him loosen up a little. Cordelia was about to comment on this when Angel and Dawn walked through the doors of the Hyperion, drawing everyone's attention in the room at their exhausted and beaten appearances.

TBC…please review!


End file.
